Lord Benyon appointed Lord Chamberlain

 Lord Benyon, aristocrat, life peer, and landowner, has been appointed to succeed Lord Parker of Minsmere as Lord Chamberlain from 31 October, 2024.

The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main channel of communication between the Sovereign and the House of Lords. The office organises all ceremonial activity such as garden parties, state visits, royal weddings, and the State Opening of Parliament. They also oversee the Royal Mews and Royal Travel, as well as the ceremony around the awarding of honours.

Lord Benyon, a life peer since 2021, was the Conservative politician Richard Benyon (born 21 Oct, 1960), the former MP for Newbury, 2005-2019 and was a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. 

Benyon's peerage was gazetted in the name, style and title of Baron Benyon, of Englefield in the Royal County of Berkshire. He sat in the House of Lords as a Conbservative peer unil 10 Sept, 2024, when he switched affiliation and became a Crossbench peer.

Richard Henry Ronald Benyon is a scion of the Shelley baronets, son of the late Sir William Benyon [1930-2014], a great grandson of Sir John Shelley, 9th Baronet. He is a nephew of the late Admiral Sir David John Hallifax, KCB, KCVO, KBE (1927 – 1992) was a senior Royal Navy officer who served as Constable and Governor of Windsor Castle from 1988 until 1992. 

Lord Benyon is also a descendant of the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury KG GCVO PC FRS DL (1830-1903), the Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister three times for a total of over thirteen years.

Benyon married firstly, in 1988 (divorced), Emma Helen Villiers (born 16 Oct 1963), scion of the Earls of Clarendon. She later married, as his second wife, in 2013, the 5th Baron Grimthorpe (b 20 Nov, 1954), son of one of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother's Ladies of the Bedchamber.

Benyon married 2ndly, in 2004, Zoe Lavinia Beatrice Robinson, daughter of Alastair Robinson (born 1937), and his wife the former Lavinia Napier, descended from the Culme-Seymour baronets.

Lord Benyon has issue from both marriages: three sons from his first wife, the Hon Henry Charles W. Benyon (born 1990), the Hon Thomas Anthony E. Benyon (born 1992), the Hon Frederick Richard Benyon (born 1994), and 2 sons from his second marriage, the Hon Louis David Benyon (born 2005), and the Hon Jimmy Benyon (born 2007).

-=-